By Erwin Quiñonez
07 Apr 2024, 1:37 PM EDT
Pitcher Stephen Strasbourg, who was a World Series champion with the Washington Nationals, surprised the Major League world this weekend by announcing his definitive retirement from baseball, after spending the last two years out of action while dealing with various injuries. .
In what was an outstanding career of 13 seasons in MLB, Strasburg had just enough time to fulfill “the dream” of being a champion and standing out even more in that championship by being chosen as Most Valuable Player (MVP) of that Fall Classic .
“When I was a kid I always dreamed of winning a World Series. Thanks to my coaches, teammates and medical staff, that dream of my childhood came true in 2019,” said the now 35-year-old former pitcher.
Stephen Strasburg finished his career with a record of 113 wins and 62 losses in 247 starts, in which he left an outstanding ERA of 3.24 after working a total of 1,470 innings in which he struck out 1,723 opponents.
These numbers are a sign that he fully met the expectations that were placed on him when he was the first selection in the first round of the 2009 Major League Draft by the Nationals.
After winning that World Series in 2019, where he was accompanied by the Dominican Juan Soto, now with the New York Yankees, arm problems began for the right-handed pitcher.
In 2020 he made just two starts. By 2021 he was diagnosed with neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome and underwent surgery to try to overcome this injury. However, from that moment on he was never able to recover his best level.
In 2022 he tried to return to the Major Leagues, but he only made one presentation in which he worked 4.2 innings in which he was beaten with 7 runs. There he finished his career in the best baseball in the world.
Given the announcement made by Stephen Strasburg, the principal owner of the Washington Nationals, Mark Lerner expressed his gratitude to his now former pitcher, “On behalf of the Lerner-Cohen-Tanenbaum family, I would like to thank Stephen for everything he did for the Washington Nationals,” he said in a statement.
After winning that 2019 championship, the right-hander signed a mega contract for seven years and US$245 million with the Nationals, which, at that time, broke the record for the largest pact for a pitcher in MLB. But since then he could only release 31.1 episodes.
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